I have always enjoyed math, and took my first calculus course as a senior in high school. When I went to college, I was still trying to decide whether to major in math or chemistry, so I took a number of courses in both areas. I got a lot of encouragement from my math professors, and organic chemistry seemed particularly abstruse. In the end the decision was easy: math!

At the time, I wanted to teach math, so I earned a masters degree and a PhD. Unfortunately, when I graduated there were very few university positions for mathematicians, and even postdoctural jobs were difficult to find. So, toward the end of my graduate school career I looked hard at what applied mathematicians in industry were doing, and even interviewed a dozen of them to find out what kinds of math they used most frequently. In addition to finishing my degree, I also took courses in numerical analysis, differential equations, and computer programming. Not surprisingly, all these courses were taught in the School of Engineering, not in the Math Department! (That situation has since changed, I'm happy to report.)

After I finished my PhD, I went to work in Aerodynamics Research for the Boeing Company. I had one (very hard) problem to solve, involving fluid flow around a radially symmetric object (like an engine housing). It was interesting mathematically, but I found that I didn't really have an affinity for airplanes or aerodynamics.